Worrying Is A Sin

0:38It says in Mishlei, Proverbs 29:25, that a person's fear will cause his falling, whereas one who trusts in Hashem will be elevated. Where no problem previously existed, a person's fear will cause a problem to develop. In contrast, if a person trusts in Hashem, he will be rescued from a problem that already existed. So here we see something extraordinary if we really look into the details. First and foremost, he starts off by saying, "Listen, if you're afraid of something, you have a very serious problem." What's the problem? You're actually committing a sin against God. It's actually a sin. It's considered a sin to not have confidence in Hashem. It's a mitzvah of lo ta'aseh, where a person, for example, is told that if there was a war... The person was afraid. Afraid of getting killed. Afraid to go to war. They say if he went to war, it would be a sin from the Torah. Why? Because him going to war could put everybody else in danger. To be afraid of a human being, of a disease, of not having money, or anything else is actually a sin. It's better to start off by saying, listen, not only is it a sin but also...

2:03It's bringing that fear into your life. You always find that the things you're worried about often happen. Especially when you're really, really scared of them. You're scared that you're not going to have money to pay rent this month. What happens? You end up not having money to pay rent this month. You're scared that you're not going to get to the appointment on time. You're overly cautious, set 87 alarms, and so on. What happens? You oversleep anyway. Certain things we're scared of for no reason. There are certain things we're supposed to be scared of, that we're supposed to be concerned about: the kavod of our friends, the kavod of our spouse, the kavod of Hashem, the kavod of Torah—things like that we're supposed to be concerned about. But there are certain things that we're scared of that are unnecessary. And the more we're scared of them, the more we actually bring them upon ourselves. One of the sources says that this... That the fear of a person will actually cause his falling, meaning the fact that you're scared of it is the reason why it happened to you. I can tell you something that happened to me. We had a doctor, a rabbi...

3:28Recommend that we should get a certain type of, and you know, a best authority said this is good to have in the house. It's good to have in the house. Okay, so I looked it up on the internet like anything else, and I ordered two or three bottles of it just to have it in the house. I don't have little kids, but stuff happens. They fall, they jump, they do this, they do that, so okay. Just in case I'll have to run to the store in the middle of the night. Nothing is urgent if everything is good now, but in case I need it, I have it. Until now, I haven't needed it. I haven't needed it. But in case I need it, I have this concentration, this special concentration that the rabbi, who knows what he's talking about, recommended. I said, okay, fine. I bought it. Not 24 hours passed, and I needed to use it. Now, I didn't think about this, that, oh, wait a minute, I bought the concentration. Oh, good. I thought, oh, it's a good thing. I had the best situation. I need to use it. Oh, Baruch Hashem. Right? That's what you think. Wrong. Wrong. Why? Hashem says, why are you buying a cure when there's no ailment? Oh, you're worried something's going to happen? Okay, something is going to happen then.

4:48Now, a lot of the people that don't have any bitachon whatsoever are going to tell you, "Wait a minute, isn't it important to protect your neshama? You have to protect yourself. You have to have reserves, you have to have protection, you have to have guns, you have to have what? All the stuff that people say?" Yes, you have to if you have no bitachon. The more stuff you have, a backup plan, a backup IRA account, a backup 401k account, a backup bank account, a backup safe account, a backup gun, a backup Uzi, a backup atomic bomb, a backup everything—you have a backup for a lot of stuff. Okay, you have a lot of backups. The problem is that you have no bitachon, because you're backing up because you have zero confidence in Hashem running the show like you want Him to, and... Sometimes Hashem is going to talk to you. He says, "Listen, you bought a cure when there was no ailment. Why did you think I was going to cause an ailment? Why do you think that I was going to let anyone need this?" And that's what Shlomo HaMelech is saying. He's not saying don't be prepared; be prepared for things that are necessary, not unnecessary.

6:09If you're worried about things that are unnecessary, you're actually bringing them on yourself because there was no problem before. But the fear that the person had is considered a sin. Since it’s considered a sin, guess what sinners get? Sinners get punished. So the person has no emunah. The Satan comes to Hashem and says, "Hashem, look at this guy. Look at this big sinner. What did he do? He brought prostration. We have to do something, Hashem. The Satan fights for it. 'Hashem, we have to do something. This guy has zero emunah. He brought prostration. Look at him. He brought prostration for no reason. Everybody's perfect. He brought prostration. He has no emunah in You, Hashem. Okay, give him a little punishment. Just give him a reason to use this prostration.'" That's why Moshe Rabbeinu calls the Satan Ra, Ra, Evil. Why? He looks for everything. Everything. Look. He fell here. He fell here. He fell here. He fell here. He gives you the idea: "Listen, you have kids. Buy some frustration."

7:24Are you crazy? You're gonna go in the middle of the night? Do you think these stores are open 24 hours a day? Which they are, by the way, but anyway, you think they will be open 24 hours a day? Maybe you think they need it right away. You're crazy. You don't have it in the house? The rabbi recommended it. This one recommended it. You should do it. It's because he puts all these crazy ideas in your head. Next thing you know, your house turns into a pharmacy. The hospital comes to you to borrow stuff. Sir, yeah. Yeah, we need some dressing and we need some antibiotics and painkillers. Well, let me see what else is on the list. Hold on, let me change the page. We have a shopping list to come to your house because you have so much stuff. Hashem says, why do you have no trust in Me? Why has nobody called on Me? Why do you have a hospital in your house? For what? Same thing goes where today it's very common for people to go on the internet and make themselves sick. How? By looking to self-diagnose. Self-diagnosis is one of the worst things a person can do to themselves. What do they do? They have a little pain on the right side, or they have a little pain on the left side, or they don't really have a pain, but they heard that somebody has a pain, and they say, you know what? Let me do my friend a favor and start seeing what this pain on the right arm means. And they start going on the internet, on WebMD, on this MD, on Mayo Clinic, and they say, oh, headache?

8:40Let me do my friend a favor and start seeing what this pain on the right arm means. And they start going on the internet, on WebMD, on this MD, on Mayo Clinic, and they say, oh, headache? Tiredness, laziness, oh my gosh. Yes, cancer, honey. I'm sorry, baby. I'm sorry. I love you. I know you're my best friend for 25 years, but I think you have lupus. I think you have lupus, honey. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What did the girls say? What were we saying about lupus? How do you know? Are you a doctor? Are you a researcher? Are you a psychiatrist? Where are you getting this from? No, I saw it on the internet—headache, laziness, tiredness. You were like, what happened? That's what we do to ourselves. Why? We have no bitachon b'Hashem. We have no bitachon b'Hashem, so we start going on the internet, we start diagnosing ourselves. Why? Because you had a little pain here, a little pain there, something happened that you don't like. A person that has real bitachon, the Ramban says, doesn't even go to the doctor. But that's a person that has the highest level of bitachon.

9:50Why? Because the Ramban says that doctors are for people who have no fear of Hashem. They have no connection to Hashem at all. That's what doctors are for. That's the Ramban from 900 years ago. If he saw this generation, he'd think he's in Gehinnom. So the reality is we know where a person can get to, where literally a person who has a serious connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn't only not diagnose himself or anything like that, but he literally, anytime there's any type of issue... He never thinks, oh, this is a problem or this is that. He simply goes to the only "Doctor" you need. I know one person like this. When something's wrong, you're thinking, well, you really need a hospital, and call 911. But instead, he says, "I'm going to call on Hashem. No doctors, no hospitals, no nothing." Why? Because calling on Hashem is better than 911.

10:519-1-1, and that's how they live their life. That's another life. That's really the home. So, first and foremost, a person needs to do everything possible not to bring fear onto themselves for no reason—unwarranted fear. Most of the time, when we commit different types of crimes against Hashem and... Because of these things, it's because of our unwarranted fears. We're afraid that we're not going to be able to pay for something or buy something, and therefore we start doing things that are illegal. People who steal don't usually start off as wicked people. Usually, they start off with an act of desperation. Usually, they're scared of not being able to pay the rent or the mortgage on time, or they owe somebody money, and there's pressure being put on them. Something happens, and all this pressure builds up and accumulates until it overwhelms them. Eventually, they say, "I gotta do something. I gotta do something quick. Why go to work at my job if I'm gonna make X amount of money? It'll take me a hundred years to make this money back. I can't do it. I gotta do something quick," and they end up doing something out of desperation.

12:07The worst thing that can happen to them is that it works out. They go and they take money. They cheat somebody. They steal from somebody. They cheat the government. Or they do something like, for example, I remember years ago there was a show that I saw called "American Greed." It showed different types of people who cheated the government, cheated the US government, because the US government has such a huge budget. We talk about trillions of dollars even in those times, in that day. Maybe it was a 10 trillion-dollar economy with a 400 billion-dollar budget. I'm sorry, a 400 billion-dollar budget for the economy of 10 trillion dollars. To cheat them for 50, 100, 200 thousand dollars, or even a few million dollars, is easy. Why? Because there's so much money, and it's not their money. It's not the employees' money. Then no one really cares. You have to press the button in the back. It's going. Thanks. So what ends up happening is that there are a lot of holes in the system. Consequently, people who are either desperate or not straightforward take advantage of it. There was one particular company that took advantage of the system by selling the government tools at obnoxiously expensive prices. Once they finally caught them, which was like five or seven years after the fact, they started reviewing and auditing the statements of all the purchases. They discovered that the company had sold them one screw, which you could buy at Home Depot for two cents, for $85,000. Additionally, they were paid for a hammer you could purchase for $3 at a price of $39,000.

13:24At obnoxiously expensive prices, once they finally caught them—which was like five or seven years after the fact—they started reviewing and auditing the statements of all the purchases. They saw they sold them one screw that you could buy at Home Depot for two cents for $85,000. And they got paid for a hammer you could buy for $3, $39,000. all types of ridiculous prices. Since everything is like systematic, you know, they press upon check, check, check, check, check, finished. Sometimes because they have somebody on the inside, sometimes not. But the point is that the guy that started this company, this tool company, didn't start off by saying, "I can't wait to cheat the government." If he's normal and... He started off, "I want to start a business so I can pay my bills, provide for my family, and hopefully I'll land a couple of big clients one day." Once he landed the government as a client, he's like, "Wow, this is great. Landed the government as a client. It's the best client in the world. Unlimited budget. You can pretty much sell them everything forever. They buy it even if they don't need it."

14:36Greatest thing in the world. So you have the biggest, biggest customer in the world. Then one day, what happens is that the guy makes a mistake. Instead of writing $38 on three hammers, he writes $3,800 by mistake. There's $38.00. He forgot the zero, and he got paid. He got paid $3,800 instead of $38. He said, "Whoa, I got $3,800. This helps me pay my mortgage. It came just in time. What a special present from Hashem." He even thinks it's a mitzvah. And now, that's what the Satan tells him. The Satan tells him, "Look, you needed $4,000. I gave it to you. See, the government paid you $4,000. What's the problem?" And unfortunately, now he says, "Oh, you know what? Next time I get into a jam, I'll do it again." Next time, he got into a slightly bigger jam. It was a $5,000 jam, so he sold them too long—instead of $50, it was $5,000. He got paid again, and little by little, this grows. Little by little, this is how it happened. The same thing happens with Ponzi schemes. If anyone doesn't know what Ponzi schemes are, simply put, it's one person who collects a bunch of people's money with the intention of investing it in something that's going to make them more money than what they have right now.

15:54But there's usually some type of gimmick to it where they tell you, listen, you're guaranteed to get a certain type of return within a certain time frame, which anyone who's an expert in the field knows, whatever the guarantee is, is unrealistic. But since people's desire and obsession with money are above and beyond their common sense, people fall for it time and time again. There's still a million Ponzi schemes going on right now. There will be Ponzi schemes going on tomorrow, yesterday, and the day before, and a month from now. There always are. I personally think that a good large portion of financial management companies are Ponzi schemes, personally. But you only know who's naked once the market is down. You know who's swimming naked once the waves start going back into the ocean, right? Right now, you can't identify the Ponzi schemes so much unless they mess up big time. Because it looks like everybody's making money right now because the market's been up for ten years in a row, twelve years in a row. As soon as the market crashes, watch, there's gonna be a slew of Ponzi schemes. A slew of them, one after another. People are gonna go to jail day after day, like the things that happened in 2008.

17:09A lot of the money that's being made right now is fake. But anyway, moving on, these Ponzi schemes usually don't start as Ponzi schemes. They start off with somebody's idea to make other people money. He gets people money and makes unrealistic promises. People give him money. And then one day he realizes, "I can't deliver on these promises. I messed up." But his ego is too big. He goes too big to admit, "Listen, I can't deliver on these promises. Not only can I not deliver on promises, I lost you money instead of making you money." What happens? He says, "Okay, some people want their money back. Okay, I got to do something." He starts giving Peter's money to Paul, Paul's money to Steve, Steve's money, and starts playing games with people's money, and this goes on for as long as he's able to continuously get new money in. as long as he's able to continue to get new investors' money, the Ponzi scheme can go on for 50 years like Bernie Madoff. But as soon as the world dries up, as soon as investors say no more or they want to take the money out, the Ponzi scheme collapses in 24 hours. Now, the guy that had a Ponzi scheme, Bernie Madoff, for example, was a big chillul Hashem, a shammy rasha, but he didn't start off that way and

18:26Start off with, like, I have an intention to steal a billion, fifty billion dollars. Maybe you want to do this, maybe you want to make a few moves, a few quick things, a few things that are not necessarily the most legitimate. The thieves didn’t have this grand scheme; it just got out of hand. Usually, most thieves are like that, and the reason why is because they have no bitachon. In Hashem, they have bitachon in themselves, and as soon as their own system fails them, they have nothing to fall back on because they have no Hashem. That problem manifests and causes a lot of other people to fall with them. So here we see that by simply being worried about things unnecessarily, you are creating problems for yourself, and... How many of us, if we do, today, after we finish here, can go home and spend a good 20 or 30 minutes thinking about all the stuff we're worried about every day for no reason? Everybody can do that. Everybody goes home and says, you know what?

19:37What? Twenty minutes? In five minutes, I can figure out that 90% of my day is spent worrying about nothing—worrying about all the things that unnecessarily worry me. Worrying about this, worrying about that, worrying about worrying. We're worried non-stop. Most people are so worried they don't even have time to enjoy the good. So, the Ba'al Shem Tov is saying, if you worry, you have a serious problem. Your worry is a sin; that sin deserves a punishment, and that punishment is exactly what you worried about. We duck, and they get us down, measure for measure. So already in the first paragraph, we have some serious life changes. Now, how do we move forward? The prophet Jeremiah writes in... Chapter 1, verse 17: "Don't be broken with fear before them, lest I break you in front of them. Don't be afraid before things happen, because if you are, I'll actually cause them to happen just because you're afraid." The Gemara in Masechet Berachot says Yehuda ben Netanel was walking behind Rav Amnuna.

20:58Went like this. You know, all of us do it. I do it five times a day. Like one of those, like you're frustrated with life. I can't believe it. One of those things, do it 900 times a day sometimes. Well, apparently there's something wrong with that. Why? And Rav Hamnuna says, are you trying to bring suffering to your life? Suffering to my life? Why? I just went... A lot of people do it. He goes, yeah. That symbolizes something. It symbolizes frustration. Frustration symbolizes lack of bitachon. You have no trust in Hashem. You have no faith in Hashem. You're making a sin right now. Hashem's going to punish you for it. What are you doing? This is... A tana made this mistake. It's not just an average job. He made a mistake. Why? Because we...

21:59forget ourselves sometimes, human nature. He says that making this mistake is a problem. You could bring yourself some serious problems because the prophet Iyov (Job) said, "What I feared has come upon me." Just because I feared it, that's what happened to me. Iyov was afraid of losing all of his money, and he lost all of his money. He was afraid of losing all of his sons, all of his children; all of them died on the same day. He was afraid of losing his health; he got sick to a point where worms were coming out of his body. All the things he was afraid of, that's what happened to him. This means he got to live his own nightmare. Of course, he was at the level to overcome it, but nonetheless... He says that this is a problem. Why? Because the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 20, verse 1, says that when you go out to war and you see horses and chariots, don't be afraid of them. What does it mean? The Rambam in his Sefer HaMitzvot says that it's a negative mitzvah not to have fear when at war. If a person has fear when he's going to war, he has to return from the battlefield.

23:19The reason is because the fear itself may cause other people to die, including him and other people. If he dies, he's afraid to die. What does Hashem do? Hashem says, you have no protection against Me? You don't think I want to protect you? I'll kill you. Now what happens? If he dies, it's not just him dying by himself. Why? He dies, and some other soldiers are depending on him to cover them. He's depending on his cover. He died, so there's no cover. The guy doesn't realize this. He's shooting in this direction, thinking he's covered by someone who has already died. So, what happens? He mistakenly believes everything's okay. The guy comes back and says, "That's two now, three, four, five." David HaMelech, alav ha-shalom, would say that anyone who even accidentally spoke between putting on their arm tefillin and their head tefillin made a mistake. You're not supposed to speak. You put on your arm tefillin and you're supposed to say the blessing. and be quiet until you finish putting on your head tefillin and tying your arm tefillin. Even then, you're not allowed to speak mundane things; you're only allowed to pray. A lot of people speak mundane things while they have tefillin on. The Gemara in Masechet Shabbat says very, very bad things about people like that—horrible things. Needless to say, David HaMelech mentions that sometimes there's a mistake people make where...

24:42not thinking and they put on their tefillin and uh the arm tefillin and somebody says, "Hey, how are you doing?" and they say, "Yeah, I'm good, oh, now to speak." So what do you do? You have to put on the head tefillin and do a second bracha, do a second blessing. David says yes, even though there's a p'tur, there's a solution to it, because you spoke in between. It's still not good. It's still not a hundred percent kosher. Why? Because you mentioned Hashem's name one more time than was really necessary. You weren't really supposed to mention Him a second time as part of the second blessing. Meaning, you made an extra blessing to correct your mistake. That's enough. I don't want you to be a soldier. David says, I don't want you to be a soldier for me. Why? Just that is enough for Hashem to cause harm during a war. And if you die, you cause other people to die. Do me a favor, go back to your wife, play with your kids, don't come to war with us. We don't need you. Now, who is this person? Not only is this person a gibor, a warrior — you always have room for warriors — but he's a tzaddik too. What's his sin? It's not like we're saying his sin was zera levatala, you know, wasting seed, or a married woman. No, chilul Shabbat, no. People like that get the death penalty.

26:05No, this guy, what did he do? What sin did he make? He just spoke by accident. He said, Baruch Hashem, in between the Tefillin. David HaMelech says, do me a favor, go back to your wife. Why? You're going to kill us. You're going to kill us. So here we see that a person, even if a person's mind is not in the right place, we already don't want him to go to war, even more so if he didn't make a sin like that. Simply, he had human nature, which means he's afraid to die. Why? Poor guy, he's already not in his best shape ever. He's got three or four kids at home, his wife, a mortgage, a company, a business, and employees. He's got a lot of stuff going on, and he hasn't been going to the gym. And now you're telling me he has to go to war? So he's thinking, you know what? I'm not like what I used to be. I was 18 years old. I was strong. I was this. I was a sniper. And now I'm a little slow. Plus, my knee hurts a little bit. And my shoulder. I don't know. He's a little worried. He's a little worried that maybe he's not going to survive this war. So when he says goodbye to his wife, he says, honey, we had a good time. I love you. You know, like, take care of the kids for me. Like, one of those goodbyes. Like, I don't know if I'm going to see you again.

27:34Torah says, you, my friend, are not allowed to go to war. Why? That doubt that you have in your mind could actually be enough for Hashem to cause harm to a person. And if that person dies, Hashem may cause other people to die as well. Do us a favor, stay home, okay? Exactly one of the main things that causes a person to have a lack of bitachon (trust) and a lack of connection to Hashem Yitbarach (God, may He be blessed) is because of his sins. That's why the Ramban (Nachmanides) says... That he's saying someone who goes to the doctor is always somebody that has no yirat shamayim. What does one thing have to do with the other? It says the fact that he has to go to the doctor means he's getting punished. Why is he getting punished? Because he made a sin. Why did he make a sin? Because he has no yirat shamayim. Because there's no yirat shamayim, that's why we go to the doctor.

28:45So the same concept here: somebody that has committed certain sins. So there's a certain disconnect between him and HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Because there's a certain amount of disconnect between him and HaKadosh Baruch Hu, that means he doesn't have full faith in Hashem. That disconnect doesn't only lead to sin; it also leads to a lack of bitachon, which also leads to a lack of everything else. I'm not going to delve into Kabbalah, but I learned once that a... Kabbalists explain it this way: There are spiritual pipes, if you will. They connect our neshama to heaven and are connected constantly. So just imagine, I don't know, imagine there's a bunch of pipes or cords, or whatever you want to call them. They connect your neshama to heaven. Each one of these cords... Represents a certain amount of space, a certain amount where you can receive Shefa, divine abundance or reward, from heaven. When a person commits a sin, some sins literally cut off the cords. Now, correct. Correct. When a person, let's say, for example, wastes seed...

30:08Violate Shabbat or if a man goes with a married woman that's not his wife, or his wife is Nida, what does that do? What does karet do? All of them at once. Meaning that from that moment on, after you cut all of them off, he has to now rebuild. He has to rebuild his teshuva, rebuild the connections from the beginning. It's very difficult. I... Because karet is related to 36 different things that Hashem (God) says are deal breakers. These transgressions hold the weight of the entire Torah concerning these particular sins. When a person commits such a sin, in essence, it is as if he does not believe in Him at all because Hashem states clearly, “There are certain things that you shouldn't do.” Certain things are not advisable, but there are certain things that, if you do them, you're simply destroying our relationship. What is it like when a guy is married, and his wife says, "Listen, yelling at me, I don't like it. I don't suggest you do it. Cursing at me is a terrible, terrible idea; I'm probably not going to talk to you for a day or two. Yelling and cursing at the same time, add another couple of days to it. Don't answer my phone calls, even more so."

31:27Goes on, this goes on, but then it says she gets to the point. She says, "Listen, you hit me once, I'm not talking to you for three weeks. Three weeks! But if you cheat on me for a second, I'm divorcing you." The hitting is terrible, the cursing horrible, the yelling awful, but cheating? Every normal woman, every normal man... They know that their spouse cheated on them. Why? Because that means that, first and foremost, that person has lost all respect for the other person. They have no value for this relationship. Secondly, they simply don't have them in their future as part of the plan. Why? Because you're taking such magnificent risks. Next point is your heart is not with me. Your heart is somewhere else. Why? If you allow your heart to be with this woman and that woman and this woman and that woman every other day, that means there's something wrong. And the point is that anyone that thinks about it, the people that cheat, I don't mean that just simply somebody had a crazy desire, he got drunk or she got drunk and she did something. No, I mean somebody that did it where it's like a relationship.

32:52actually pre-plan this and so on. But even somebody that got drunk, it's also a very serious problem. The reason why is because people that get drunk or do something foolish under the influence, it's not because they didn't want to do it before; they've always wanted to do it. It's just that once they got drunk or high or whatever it is, they, in essence, allowed themselves to do what they've always wanted to do. So the point being is that there are certain things that are simply the breaking point. It's the same thing when someone works for a company. The company can say, "Listen, if you tell us that you're working every day, but in reality, you're cheating on the time clock every day by 15 minutes or a half hour, it's no good. We're probably going to dock you. You show up late, we're probably going to address it. Your work is incomplete—no good. But if you steal from the company, that's it. The trust is finished." Why steal from the company or take our trade secret and sell it to the competitors, and cut off the ties? Why? Because that pretty much shows that the relationship has irreparable damage. You no longer consider this relationship as something valuable. You are now hurting this relationship. Which means what?

34:09We have to mend our ties. Now with HaKadosh Baruch Hu, because he's not only our King, but he's also our Father; he doesn't want to disconnect from us. But at the same token, he's not going to give us a free ride forever. If we continue sinning with the irreparable damage type of karet sins, then we remain in that horrible status. But if we fix ourselves, b'ezrat Hashem, we start anew. Hashem says that we could begin as if nothing ever happened. The Rambam in Hilchot Teshuvah actually says that he gives a fantastic description of it. I don't remember every word by heart, but he says, the Rambam says, look at the Ba'al Teshuvah. Before he did teshuva, he was considered despicable, disgusting, an abomination, ugly, awful, and hated. But now, since he did teshuva, he's beloved, he's wonderful, he's beautiful, and Hashem loves him. One second. Why did he do teshuva? She did teshuva. She decided to put on modest clothing. Baruch Hashem. She started to keep Shabbat. Baruch Hashem. Hashem no longer considers the past; it's as if she is a different person.

35:18So, the Rambam says here that a person who is worried is going to bring a lot of problems to themselves and other people because that worry itself is literally a sin. And the Prophet Isaiah says in chapter 30, verse 15: "With security and trust will be your might." Meaning that the fact that you have Bitachon in Hashem, you have confidence in Hashem, that's what's going to give you strength to win the war. It's not the weapon. It's not the Iron Dome. It's not how many planes you have. It's not how many bombs you have. No, no, no. You have faith in Hashem that Hashem will take care of you. That's enough. In reality, that's the only thing that can protect you. And David HaMelech writes in Tehillim 118:6, "Hashem is with me; therefore, I have no fear of what man may do to me." Since I feel Hashem is with me, I do not fear, and thus no man can harm me at all. In our Mincha, we say this every day, and it's very, very easy to become so accustomed to our prayer that we don't truly delve into the meaning of the words. David HaMelech...

36:46After the Amidah, we read Tehillim number 25. I believe Sephardim and Ashkenazim both read it. I think so. No? Ashkenazim don't read Tehillim after... No, actually, you don't. So... So, I didn't read after me how we read together number 25. It's a very famous Tehillim that David HaMelech said. He had an "Elay Hashem nafshi esa, Elohai b'cha batachti; al aivai al ei aveyshah." David HaMelech says, "My soul is being lifted to my God because I trusted Him, b'cha batachti, that He is not going to let me be embarrassed." And He won't let my enemies rejoice over me. Here in the first verse of this Tehillim, it's in essence the worry that every human being has. We don't necessarily fear loss because of ourselves all the time. We fear loss because of what other people think of us. Losing money is bad enough. Losing status is much worse. I remember one woman told me,

38:00We have the foreclosure happening. They had a foreclosure, miskin, a foreclosure happening scheduled for a certain date, and they were trying to get the money together. But there was a high likelihood they weren't going to get the money together. Oh, in the end, they ended up getting the money together. But she told me there's something that I'm thinking about right now, and it really fits. She says to me, she listens. The money, the house, I lose, I lose. It's from Hashem. What can I do? He wants to take it, take it. I love the house. Lived in the house for so many years. I don't want to lose the house. But if it goes, Baruch Hashem, what can I do? Oh, so I'm thinking, wow, this woman is ba'alat emunah. She says, yeah, but here's the thing. What I can't handle is all the neighbors are going to see the sheriff come to the house and lock the door. can't handle that. "I'd rather die," she tells me. The neighbors seeing the sheriff lock the door, put one of those tapes on—"Do Not Enter," one of the caution signs or whatever it says. An auction taking place in front of the house. She says, "For that, I'd rather die." All the neighbors that don't like me, all the neighbors, all this, all that. I

39:26Person thinks about the embarrassment that happens to them as a result of loss, as a result of divorce, and as a result of things like that. It's unbearable, and this actually leads a lot of people to commit suicide and do a lot of foolish things because they're literally more petrified of the shame than they are of the actual loss. This actually means that they have a different problem. means that they have a different problem. Aside from having a problem with money or whatever the issue is, they also have a problem with kavod, pride. And pride, the Ramban says in his letter, the Iggeret HaRamban, is the worst midah you can possibly have. Unfortunately, many of us suffer from pride because we think that we're something special, whether it's because we're smart, good-looking, rich, or for some other reason that justifies our sense of pride. Even David HaMelech says that he has trust in Hashem that his enemies will not rejoice over him. That's what he trusts, even though he refers to himself as a worm but not a man.

40:46I trust that Hashem is not going to bring me to such a point. I trust Him that He's not going to bring me to a point where my enemies will rejoice over me. We hope, we all hope in You, that we should not be embarrassed, we should not be ashamed, and we should not be mistreated. Teach us Your ways, inform us of Your ways. Lead me into Your truth, lead me in Your truth, for You are the God of my salvation. For You, I have thought about You all day. I'm hoping, thinking about You, Hashem. Please remember Your mercies, Hashem, Your kindness, the eternal kindness that You have.

41:48and my sins, my sins that I committed in my past, don't remember those. Don't hold those things against me. Because if You do, no one can withstand these things. So here we see that David HaMelech (King David) himself is concerned about all this. But then later on in the same Tehillim, he says, "See my affliction and my toil," meaning, see all the horrible things that actually ended up happening to me. This refers to all the things he was worried about in the beginning, such as being embarrassed in front of his enemies and so on. Look at all those horrible things that are actually happening to me. And if you compare it to my sins, why am I getting one sin and all these horrible things happening to me? And he says, but what's the difference between us and David HaMelech? Please, Hashem, you protected my soul until now despite all this bad stuff happening to me. Don't let me be ashamed. Because I take refuge in you. Meaning, even though I was afraid of bad things to happen, and they ended up happening, I'm still going to you. Because you're the only thing that I have. Why? Because the only thing that preserved me was my innocence, my honesty. I knew where I was wrong, I knew where I was right, I knew what I was connected to you from the beginning. And in you is what I had my hope in. Ki kiviticha. And this expression of reliance on Hashem shows the true foundation of faith amidst trials that we learn from David HaMelech.

43:09Because I take refuge in you. Meaning, even though I was afraid of bad things happening, and they ended up happening, I'm still turning to you. Because you're the only one that I have. Why? Because the only thing that preserved me was my innocence and my honesty. I knew where I was wrong; I knew where I was right. I knew that I was connected to you from the beginning. And in you, I had my hope. Ki kiviti'cha. So, please, Hashem, redeem Yisrael. Redeem Am Yisrael from all of its troubles, and Hashem will redeem Am Yisrael from all of its sins. Here we see that even though some of the things that David HaMelech worried about actually ended up happening, he knew that he caused it himself. Hashem is right. So that's why I still go back to you. And that's why in the end, he says, "Please, Hashem, redeem Am Yisrael from all of its troubles and you'll be redeemed from the sins." Why? Because the sins caused the troubles. The sins caused the troubles. So here we see that David HaMelech himself constantly worked on his own bitachon.